San Francisco's district attorney wants to put a stranglehold on scammers who target the elderly in minority communities.
According to the San Francisco Weekly, District Attorney George Gascon along with other city leaders, will hold a public meeting Wednesday to address the problem of so-called 'ghost scammers.' Authorities say the suspects mainly target the elderly in Chinese communities by offering services to remove evil spirits from homes. When the victim agrees, authorities say the victims are told to hand over a bag full of valuables to the scammers, who promise to perform a prayer ceremony on the items.
But, when the bag is returned a short time later, all of the valuables are replaced with trash. Investigators say they recently arrested three such scammers who pocketed more than $1 million dollars worth of goods.
The meeting with be held at the Geen Mun Senior Center located at 777 Stockton St. at 11 a.m. Two more meetings will be held on Sept. 18 at the Self Help for the Elderly and on Oct. 3 in the Asian Pacific American Community Center.
